Bill Would End Non-residents` Water Surcharge

SPRINGFIELD — Residents of an unincorporated area near Frankfort no longer would be forced to pay a monthly surcharge on their water bills under a measure endorsed by a Senate panel Wednesday.

The bill, which cleared the Local Government Committee on an 8-4 vote, would prohibit communities with populations of less than 25,000, like far southwest suburban Frankfort, from charging non-residents higher rates for water and sewer service than residents have to pay.

The measure would remove an average monthly surcharge of $17 from the water bills of nearly 10,000 customers in the East Hickory Creek service area that pays for a private water utility, Prestwick Water Co., the village bought in August.

Residents of the area, which includes a slice of the village and the unincorporated community of Frankfort Square, have charged in a lawsuit that the village is discriminating against them by charging them more for a project that benefits the entire community.

Frankfort Square residents allege that the village, which threatened to shut off the water of residents who protested the charge by not paying their bills, passed the cost of the utility to them because they do not vote in Frankfort.

``The village has, in effect, voted to pass a charge to a substantial number of people who have no say by the ballot box or any other method . . . on what the charge ought to be,`` said Sen. Thomas Dunn (D-Joliet), the bill`s sponsor.

Frankfort Mayor Kenneth Biel said the charge is legal and needed to retire bonds sold to cover the $11 million cost of the utility. He said also it would be a bad precedent to allow the state to tamper with rates set by communities that sell water to their neighbors.